Portland, OR - Community Newspapers, a Pamplin Communications Corporation company , recently installed Workflow ESP automated prepress, from Fusion Systems International, as part of their migration to Computer-to-Plate.

Like many publication printers switching to direct plate imaging, Community Newspapers first needed a cost effective prepress workflow to provide digital integrity between proofing, plating and the printed product.

Following an extensive evaluation of workflow options Community Newspapers selected Fusion Systems’ Workflow ESP, running entirely on Mac OS X.   Blake Jensen, Production Manager,  reflects, “Most workflows had some of Fusion’s features but Workflow ESP is more straight forward in its operation, provides real  automation, and has a comprehensive (imposition) package for handling any type of publication or press template requirement.”

Procedures that use to take hours are now completed in minutes. “Work that required as much as four hours is now completed in one”, comments Don Atwater, Operations Manager at Community Newspapers, Inc. “Fusion’s Workflow ESP has really delivered, and has cut prepress production time by roughly 60 percent".

This reduction in prepress labor time is attributed to the workflow’s single-page processing capabilities, advanced publication soft-proofing, and automated post-RIP page pairing.  Labor reductions and the elimination of errors earlier in the production cycle, combined with the migration to CTP has positively impacted the entire production operation.

States Blake Jensen, “We produce over 100 different publications every month and really needed a flexible and automated workflow solution. “One that could process multiple publications simultaneously, in an automated fashion, with absolute digital integrity proofing to ensure that every ad or page that is proofed, and approved,  plates correctly”.

Since transitioning to the new workflow and CTP the newspaper has been able to comfortably run all prepress in a single shift. For publications that run on the second shift the system is set up to automatically output digital flats to the CTP imager.

Cost savings from the elimination of film and plate waste is directly attributed to the systems digital integrity proofing throughout the prepress cycle.  Blake Jensen points out, “On the first day of running the new workflow we caught three serious file separation errors, in the publication proofing module, that would have otherwise gone to press”.

The system automatically broadcasts post-RIP raster-PDFs of each page by title, section and date onto an internet-based portal for review, approval and remote proofing.  These proofing files are exact representations of how the job will print. As pages are soft-proofed and approved on-line, by editorial staff and external commercial clients, the pages are automatically forwarded, page pair and output to the CTP imagers. This takes place both during the main shift and during the second shift long after all prepress personnel have left for the day.

Community Newspapers includes the Lake Oswego Review, West Linn Tidings, Gresham Outlook, Beaverton Valley Times, Estacada News, Clackamas Review, Forest Grove News-Times, Oregon City News, Sandy Post, The Times serving Tigard and Tualatin, East County News, Lifestyles Northwest, Sherwood Gazette, Southwest Community Connection, The (Sellwood) Bee and the King City Regal Courier. They also provide contract publishing management services for approximately 30 monthly and annual publications and full-service printing and mailing services. The company also publishes six Coupon Tabloid shopper newspapers.